Assassin's Creed Origins Guide - Curse of the Pharaohs Expansion, Tips and Tricks, How to Earn Money and Level Up Quickly

Assassin's Creed Origins takes the action to Egypt, and we've got all the advice you need including how to earn money and XP quickly, how to kill Phylakes, the Trials of the Gods, boss fights, and how to find all the Stone Circle locations in the game.

Assassin's Creed Origins marks the return of the historical franchise after a year off, and this time we're headed to Egypt, to experience the very founding of the Brotherhood of Assassins, in the earliest chronological game so far. In this comprehensive Assassin's Creed Origins tips guide, we'll be taking you through all the tips and tricks you need to know to get to grips with the game, as well as a general Assassin's Creed Origins beginner's guide, just in case it's your first time giving the Assassin's Creed series a spin.

We'll get you up to speed with everything you could possibly need to know about the game with our Assassin's Creed Origins tips and tricks, as well as delving into other areas of the game, such as how to kill Phylakes, as well as all the Stone Circle locations in the game. Since this is quite possibly the largest game in the series to date there's a lot of ground to cover, including drastic changes to the combat of Assassin's Creed Origins, on top of other details like side quests and eagle vision, all of which we'll be covering in our Assassin's Creed Origins beginner's guide. In addition to all this, we'll also be regularly updating our guides to include the latest Trials of the Gods events, which pit Bayek against various ancient Egyptian gods.

Assassin's Creed Origins Curse of the Pharaohs Expansion

While the Discovery Tour mode and New Game Plus might have only recently been implemented in Assassin's Creed Origins, the brand new Curse of the Pharaohs expansion is now available in-game. This new add on sees Bayek travelling to the ancient city of Thebes, in a meaty expansion that looks set to go well over the run time of the Hidden Ones' 5-10 hours play time.

Although the intro quest for the Curse of the Pharaohs DLC expansion is level 47, we feel fairly confident that anyone can undertake the expansion starting out from roughly level 45. The new expansion is clearly meant to be end game content, so make sure you've wrapped up the main story of Assassin's Creed Origins before you take on Curse of the Pharaohs.

Assassin's Creed Origins Guide

First of all, you can find all our more detailed Assassin's Creed Origins guides just below. These delve into areas of the game in depth, including all the Stone Circle and Hermit Hideout locations in the game, as well as the ongoing Trials of the Gods events.

Assassin's Creed Origins Beginner's Guide

Now for our more basic of guides, the Assassin's Creed Origins beginner's guide. In this section of our guide, we'll be breaking down all the core mechanics of the game, as well as detailing all the significant changes from past games, as there's a lot to catch even the most experienced players up on.

First of all, combat has undergone significant changes. The Assassin's Creed Origins combat functions more akin to the likes of The Witcher 3, as instead of countering an enemy move and instantly killing them like you would in past Assassin's Creed games, this time it's all about dodging and weaving your way through the battlefield. Whenever you're in combat with an enemy, their blade will flash a dark orange whenever they attempt to strike you, and this is your indicator to dodge either sideways or backwards out of their reach. From here, you can press the attack with either a light attack on the right shoulder button, or a heavy attack on the right trigger.

There are plenty of Tombs to explore off the beaten path.

Speaking of heavy attacks, you're going to encounter a lot of shield-bearing enemies in Assassin's Creed Origins, and your window for harming them is incredibly small. Your options are limited to either dodging behind them when you see their blade flash, just like every other enemy, or by performing a heavy attack on them. The heavy attacks in Assassin's Creed Origins will stagger almost every enemy, and if an enemy has their shield up against you, they can be used to temporarily knock the shield aside, leaving the enemy open to few quick attacks.

As we previously mentioned, there aren't nearly as many collectibles in Assassin's Creed Origins are there were in past games. Nevertheless, there are Stone Circles scattered all around the vast map of Egypt, and finding and activating one of these will let you match up a pattern with the star constellations in the sky, as well as hearing some dialogue between protagonist Bayek and his son. Consult our Assassin's Creed Origins Stone Circles guide above for a full walkthrough of the location of every Stone Circle around Egypt.

On top of the main quest that sees Bayek seeking revenge against the Order of the Ancients, there are a litany of side quests out in the open world for you to take on. However, there's also a brand new levelling system to contend with, and you can level Bayek up through earning XP on main quests, side quests, Stone Circles, and Tombs. If you ever find that a main quest is a little too difficult for you, you should undertake lower level side quests around the map, and build Bayek's overall level up.

Be warned that after a certain point in Assassin's Creed Origins, the game gets significantly tougher. The areas of Siwa and Lake Mareotis are the warmup areas, and after that, the Order of the Ancients will send powerful Phylakes (ancient bounty hunters) after Bayek. There's generally one Phylakes per every region on the map, but don't worry, you'll always receive a warning whenever a Phylakes is nearby. For more on the Phylakes, check out our complete guide to taking down the Phylakes, at the top of the page.

Assassin's Creed Origins Tips Guide

Since we've got all the major changes that have been made to Assassin's Creed Origins out of the way, we can now delve into the core mechanics of the game in greater detail, in our Assassin's Creed Origins tips and tricks guide. Just below, we'll be outlining some of general information you should be aware of when roaming around Egypt.

Unlike previous Assassin's Creed games, you'll need to unlock the map of Assassin's Creed Origins one step at a time. Each section of the map is divided into areas of lesser and greater difficulty, and if you hover just over them, you can see the minimum recommended level for Bayek in each of them.

Once you've discovered a region, you'll then have a litany of question marks on the map, denoting areas of interest that you're yet to uncover. These could be anything, from Stone Circles to Tombs, or farms and villages.

We should note that if a question marker is glowing gold slightly on the map, then this denotes an area of particular interest. It'll likely be either a Tomb, Stone Circle, or a powerful enemy camp.

Whenever you're in an enemy location, such as a camp or fort, press in the left analog stick to view the location objectives. If you complete all of these (usually killing the Captain, or discovering the nearby treasure), you'll bag yourself some XP.

If you want to survey your current surroundings, press up on the D-pad to activate the Animus Scan, which will pick up items that you can loot nearby.

In Assassin's Creed Origins, Eagle Vision has been replaced with vision from a literal eagle. Bayek's eagle, Senu, patrols the sky at all times, and you can survey the nearby landscape by holding up on the D-pad. Senu will pick out various animals, enemies, and quest objectives for you.

You can level up Bayek by undertaking virtually any action, such as assassinating an enemy, discovering a new location, completing a locations objectives, or completing a quest.

Always be wary about the level indicator above the head of an enemy. If it's red, then you should probably start running in the opposite direction.

See those hippos? You can kill them.

That's all for our Assassin's Creed Origins guides for now, but rest assured that we'll be uncovering additional hidden information surrounding this massive game, and we'll be adding anything new we discover to this guide straight away.

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